08:49 03/09/2021
White House officials said Thursday that the United States' engagement with Afghanistan's Taliban rulers had entered a new, uncertain phase as U.S. officials continue to work to evacuate the roughly 100 Americans still in the country.
Meanwhile, Taliban officials signaled that their new government was strengthening ties with China and other countries.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US no longer controls the airspace over Afghanistan. So far, she said, 31,107 people have been brought to the US, out of a total of more than 120,000 evacuees in what administration officials have described as the largest air evacuation in history.
On Thursday, a Taliban spokesman announced in a tweet that a senior Taliban official had spoken with a senior Chinese official.
"The Chinese vice foreign minister said Beijing would keep its embassy in Kabul, adding that our relations would be strengthened compared to the past," wrote Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman commenting in English.
There has been no confirmation yet from Beijing, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.
Other Taliban officials said in comments on Twitter that they were holding diplomatic discussions with Britain and Germany. Qatar and Turkey are also helping the new Afghan government to normalize operations at the main airport in Kabul.
Spokeswoman Psaki said the US is currently monitoring developments and waiting to identify forms of engagement with Afghanistan's new, unelected government. She emphasized that the US has non-military forms of pressure on the new government, such as access to global markets and financial aid.
"No one in the US government, no one — not the president, not the secretary of defense or the intelligence agencies — has said that the Taliban are good actors," she said. "We are not saying such a thing. That's why we speak so clearly when we discuss the causes that we are being cautious and we are not in a hurry to recognize the Taliban as a governing authority, because we want to see what is happening".
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the diplomatic corps would also be cautious in handing out aid to the new government.
"Our aid to the Afghan government is being analyzed. A new government has not yet been formed in Afghanistan. So, first, we will have to see how the government is being formed. This is just a technical element. ... What is even more important among the topics you mentioned (Mr. Price was answering questions from journalists), will be the actions of the new Afghan government."
In particular, he said, the US will prioritize "safe transition, respect for the rights of people in Afghanistan, including women and girls and minorities, an inclusive government, a government that lives up to its counter-terrorism commitments, a government that respects universal international norms".
In establishing a new government, the Taliban also face challenges within the country's borders, particularly from the National Resistance Front, the resurgent insurgent movement led by the son of the famous mujahideen commander Ahmed Shah Massoud.
His British-educated son has returned to Afghanistan and, in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, vowed to fight for "an open society, a society where girls can become doctors, our press can report freely, young people Our people can dance and listen to music or attend football matches in stadiums that were once — and may soon again — be used by the Taliban for public executions."
Military officials said the US could still fight terrorism in the region, although "the US military mission in Afghanistan has ended," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
"We will continue to have the capacity to conduct strikes from outside Afghanistan to target terrorists depending on security needs," he said. "This is different from the presence of a continuous military mission in Afghanistan"./VOA
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
